Harvard University’s George Church believes if he and his team are successful they will not just change the world, they may help to save it

Speaking to Sun Online, Prof Church said: “We have already revived dozens of genes and are testing them in elephant cells.

“We are focusing on a reviving mammoth genes and making a mammoth/elephant hybrid and help them spread to vast wild, arctic climates.”

Using a genetic engineering technique called CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing, his team of scientists can “cut and paste” strands of DNA into elephant stem cells with a precision not seen before, paving the way for a woolly mammoth embryo.

And if the huge furry mammoths/elephant hybrids were to be brought into being, Prof Church said they could repopulate these freezing wastelands and help lock in the lethal fumes.

He said: “Cold-resistant elephants would flatten the insulating snow and supporting trees in winter and favour the highly heat reflective grass in summer. “They would also help capture new carbon by enhancing the photosynthetic capacity of the vegetation.”

BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS

In a previous interview, park director and scientist Nikita Zimov told Sun Online: “By the time mammoths will be cloned, if they’re cloned and brought to the park, we will have a system.

“They’ll eat shrubs, break down shrubs. They’ll trample down the grass, eat the grass. The park is to show animals can transform the vegetation.”

If the park, which is already populated with bison, horses, moose, reindeer and muskox, is successful it will be expanded across the north in areas where there is a risk of mass methane release.

Russian scientist and his son are trying to recreate the Ice Age in short film, Mammoth

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